Infected
by elenamarie0801
Summary: In a post pandemic world, people have been plagued with a dangerous infection that causes its victims to become horribly disfigured, behaviour erratic, seeking mindless blood & gore. Erica & Isaac, two adolescent smugglers, cross paths with Lydia, a girl who has ties to the elite rebellion: the Fireflies their simple way of life is shaken when they learn her secret. She is the cure


Drops were always dangerous, there was nothing about that, that'd changed. Isaac's job was the only certain thing it seemed these days within the caged off city, swarming with soldiers and recaptured stragglers. Ever since he'd escaped the military brigade when he was thirteen, things had only gotten harder.

In the earlier days, the cover of night seemed ideal to move out of the quarantine and to the outside-but both Erica and Isaac had learned that the simplest way, was through the checkpoints with a foolproof set of papers. Being as young as they were, him falling at a mere eighteen, his lady friend treading behind him by a year, they were difficult to come by, for no one seemed to want to deal with 'children'.

Apparently, people thought, that they could fuck around with them too. Robert here, was a prime Goddamn example.

The world however, was far from simple and unchanging. It was rotting, plummeting farther into filth. It seemed these days, they were spending more time fighting each other instead of the infected. The thought made him want to laugh- if it was possible for him to crack a smile anymore.

The older man was cornered by the two teenagers, hair slicked back like an italian wanna be gangster he'd seen old movie posters of-films that he'd never gotten the chance to view himself, long ago. His father had remembered, told him everything he had missed and could've had. But two years old was far too young to appreciate anything before the outbreak.

"Isaac, Erica..." Robert was saying casually, wiping the sleeve of his dirty looking sweater across his brow. His tone was careless, but his perspiring gave away his nerves. They may have been young-but now that it'd come down to it, their client new better than to slip up when it came to disrespecting them.

"No hard feelings right?"

Erica gave Robert her sweetest smile, her metal piping balanced on her shoulder. "Hard feelings? None at all."

"Good, that's...that's good." Robert says slowly. He looked like a caged rat in that alley way, his back to the locked fence, the only way out was passed them, and oh, how good they were at blocking his sweet, sweet escape.

Still, the imbecile made a break for it, thinking -for whatever reason-that he could dart passed them. Robert's fleeting attempt, only ended with a great swing to Erica's pipe at his ankles, and with a howl of pain, he went down, face planting into the concrete.

"We missed you." The blonde says, swinging her pipe one more time, but it was more as though she were testing it.

"Look, whatever you heard-it ain't true okay?" Robert begins to defend lamely, he had a hand clutching at his now useless foot.

"I just wanna say-"

"The guns." The Reyes girl interrupts nonchalantly. "We wanna know where our merchandise is. You wanna tell us?"

There was a bit of long pause, Isaac chose to look on as he watched his boss lady work. His arms were crossed over his chest, his entire body propped up against the brick of the wall looking unconcerned and unsympathetic. "Yeah...sure but...It's complicated all right?"

"Somehow, the choice between breathing and not breathing is complicated to you?" Isaac snorts looking up at the sky.

"Look...just hear me out I got-" One look from Erica, told Isaac it was time to move. The boy pushed himself to a standing position, before the heaviness of his boot met Robert's dirty scruffy face, the bridge of his nose cracking, audible; blood gushing without hesitation from his nostrils. "Fuck!" The adolescent wasn't done yet, dropping down to bent knee, he took hold of one of the older man's arms, twisting it in threat of a break. "Ow! Stop, stop, stop!" The bombshell rolled her eyes, coming around to crouch in front of their prisoner. "Don't beg, that's pathetic." She mutters, looking down at the squirming male, drawing her silver pistol from her holster.

"Spit it out, we don't have all day."

" I sold them." There was a look exchanged between both Isaac and Erica then, before the curly haired boy chuckled incredulously. "What the fuck did you just say?" Isaac says through a laugh. "Who the fuck to?" This time, his tone was harsher, meant to intimidate, his handsome face screwing up in pure rage.

Robert let out a nervous sigh, swallowing the sudden lump in throat. "Look, I didn't have much of a choice-I-I owed someone."

"You owed us-what? Did you think you could screw us over because we're just a couple of kids? I think you fucked up _**Rogey**_. Now answer the question-who to?"

Another heavy pause. "...I can't. Just gimme a couple days." With grunt, Isaac pulled that arm, the snap was even louder than the breaking of his nose had been, and this time, Robert's sound of anguish was even more frenzied. "Christ!" It was sad, listening to a grown man whimper like that. "The Fireflies-I owed the Fireflies!" The Fireflies-the elite resistance against the Government's unfair treatment of the remaining survivors of the outbreak-deadly to trifle with, deadly to betray, deadly to fight against.

Not everything that rogue organization did was noble however, just like religion, the follower of any God could stray. Lately however, they'd been fewer of them in numbers, the military-what was left of them had been shaving them down quite effectively, looked like they were getting desperate making deals with Robert for firearms.

"Look-they're practically half dead already," Robert scrambles. "We can just go in there, finish 'em off-man fuck those Fireflies! Whadaya say huh?" The look on Erica's face suggested exactly what she thought about that, and with a single hand shooed Isaac off. The boy stood backing up as Erica rose to her feet as well.

The barrell of her shining gun, aligned itself with the temple of the older male's crown. "Shutup." The trigger was pulled. Poor guy barely got out a cry of alarm before his brains painted the walkway. Sighing, Isaac rubbed his hands on his pants for a moment as though to clean them, nudging the dead body with the toe of his boot.

"I think it's funny, that we're going to do exactly what he was suggesting after you shot him." He says conversationally after a while, turning to look at his companion. "I just don't know what exactly you're planning to do to get it done."

"I don't know, we'll just-explain it to them or something." Erica says exasperated running her fingers through her hair. "Let's just go find a Firefly."

"You don't have to look far." The pair of them turned to the sound of the new voice of a woman.

"Speak of the devil."

Marlene stood before them, her left hand pressing into her right side to add pressure to a wound that was leaking through her layered, faded blue sweat shirt. Marlene's curling dark hair was pulled back into a poofing ponytail and her dark skin was covered in blacked grime. Looked like she'd just been a gun fight. Isaac didn't doubt it for an instant.

"What are you doing here?" The leader of Fireflies questions, it wasn't at all accusatory, simply tired.

It was Isaac's turn to pipe up."Business...you look like you got hit by a truck." Marlene did not at all look amused and she shook her head.

"Where's Robert?"

Oops. Erica did nothing more than step aside to show the rogue leader the corpse, laying in a pool of blood. "I needed him alive."

"Yeah, well, the guns he gave-those were ours, he had no right to sell them and we want them back. We're willing to negociate, so how many ration cards do you want."

"I paid for those guns, I'm going to make this simple so that even you two can understand. If you want them back you gotta earn them. I don't give a damn about ration cards-I want you to do your job. I need something smuggled out of the city." There was a beat of silence then as the trio stared each other down in that alley, the heavy gloom of evening blue and upon them. Now things were getting interesting.

"You do that, the guns are yours and then some."

"Wait." Isaac begins, his eyes set on the strawberry blonde before the trio. Unlike them who were all battered and bruised from the onslaught of soldiers they'd had to kill to make it this far. the teenaged girl sat upon a table top, one leg crossed over the other, unmarked by bruises or scars. The small cramped office space didn't leave much place for them all to stand without being too close to each other. Marlene had nearly collapsed, the strain of making back in one piece to the girl she considered her daughter had taken a toll on her already injured body.

"Lydia,"

Marlene gasps harshly, struggling to stand. "I got us help...but I can't come with you."

"You want us to smuggle her? What the fuck for?" The boy was pointing now in the Lydia's direction. God. One chick and still no guns.

The amount of patience it took to sit quietly and wait for Marlene to return was almost too much. When the women had first explained that she was going to go find help Lydia had figured she meant something along the lines of a small army, not two teenagers much like herself. It was almost disappointing as her gaze leveled the girl. She was pretty, even with all her scars, grime and scratches but she wasn't much competition. The male on the other hand was in his own class his beautiful face and body was marked with scars here and there but in her mind it only added to his appeal. Curiously she wondered if the two of them were a thing, it wouldn't surprise. With such a small amount of humans left a male would take whatever they could manage, and at least she was pretty.

"Okay I bite-" She says after a moment completely ignoring the tall ones comment. "What do you mean you're not coming?" Because no way in hell Lydia Martin was going anywhere without the women who had practically been her mother all her life, raising her, loving her. "Because I'm _not_ going anywhere without you."

Lydia had grown up within the walls of the Firefly camp, only ever going outside through secret and protected tunnels. She'd been trained as well years upon years of medical training, combat, and even some explosive. Give her a gun and she'd be able to shoot straight, not that she had ever needed to and that was the thing, practice was one thing, actually being out there was completely different.

"Do we even know these two? They're my age and you expect me to trust that they're gonna deliver me in one piece?" Nope. Nope. Hell to the freaking nope. "What kind of deal did you make with them?" Because there had to be some sort of deal in the process, or else the two of them wouldn't be bothering with her. It was already clear that they were annoyed with the situation. Marlene had to be completely crazy.

"I knew Isaac's brother, Camden." Marlene made gesture with her head towards the curly haired boy. "He was a good man."  
"Was that before or after he ditched your little girl scout club?" The teenager counters, reaching into his pocket to pull out a clean rag and wipe his hands off. He needed a fucking bath, he'd made do with what he could as soon as he got the chance.  
"He left you too." He knew there was a reason why Isaac had never truly liked Marlene, always had a comeback for everything.

"Lydia, we won't get another shot at this." She tries to comfort, grunting just a little as she managed to rest against the table next to her adoptive daughter. "A crew of Fireflies will take you off their hands at the capitol building, I'll meet you there."  
"The Capitol building? That's fucking far-I think we're going to have to renegotiate." Erica

dismisses, near immediately.

Marlene didn't look like she had much patience or life left in her with the look she offered Isaac's partner. "Do you want your guns or not?"

"Speaking of which, where the hell are they? You dragged us around half the Goddamn city, and we still haven't seen shit." The Reyes girl finishes.

A huge, tired sigh slipped through the leader of the Fireflies mouth. "They're back at our camp-you follow me there, I get patched she," Marlene points to Lydia. "Isn't crossing that part of town-I want Isaac to watch over her."

It seemed today was full of calculation and pauses today, it was giving Isaac a headache.

So great not only had she been downgraded to a simple /she/ who clearly had no control over her own actions or plans but she was also getting stuck with Mr. More snark than looks.  
"How long will this take? I was hoping to get to the capitol sooner rather than later."  
Not to mention trusting these two seemed a bit too dangerous for her liking.

She'd heard about how the outside world could test a person, change them until they were almost unrecognizable. The outside world was harsh, and Lydia knew it which was why she so unsure about going out there in the first place. But if Marlene was sure, then she'd trust her judgement. She'd never been led astray by it, so why should this time be any different.

"I'll wait here with what's his face, just don't take forever." She decides both for herself and the group, making her feel like she at least had a little control over the situation.

"We're not staying here-we gotta move. "Isaac corrects, tugging the blonde closer to him by a hand. Erica's browns lifted up to meet his blues. "I'm gonna get her to the North tunnel-you don't take long and meet us there okay?" He tells her, and she nodded.  
Releasing Erica, Isaac jerked his head towards the exit.

"Stay close Cargo." He adds to their package-he'd thought he'd never see the day when they'd be smuggling _people._

"This shit had better be worth it."

"This Cargo has a name, so unless you wanna be known as _street trash _you better use it."  
What was it with men thinking they could so easily disrespect women whenever they pleased. "And I can handle myself thanks, so just worry about leading the way."

"Yeah, I bet." Not that he cared. The creaking wooden door was open to the abandoned building, and very soon indeed they'd exited down through the fire escape.

**((AN: So this is all kind of everywhere, and if you've played the game then you know exactly what is going on kind of. Only difference is the characters have been changed obviously. **

**But all around it's Zombie type plot line and we WILL differ from the game, so don't get angry when it does. **

**As always reviews are loved and encouraged!)**


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